Rubik's Revenge
by L1701E
Summary: Oneshot. Set in my Misfitverse. The New Mutants versus a Rubik's Cube. 'Nuff said. Read and review please!


**Rubik's Revenge**

**Hey, folks! L1701E here! I was reading about the Rubik's Cube on Wikipedia, and I got this great idea for a one-shot set in my version of the Misfit-verse, starring the original New Mutants. Enjoy!**

**The Xavier Institute**

Several of the New Mutants were lounging around in the Common Room, doing various things. Tabitha Smith and Amara Aquilla were playing cards. The blonde was trying to teach the brunette princess how to play Gin.

"Is this good?" Amara showed Tabby her hand. The bomb-maker shook her head.

"No. In fact, I beat you again." Tabby showed her hand. "Gin!" Amara's jaw dropped.

"That is not fair!" Amara grunted. "This deck is rigged!" Tabby rolled her eyes.

"Yes, 'Mara. The deck is rigged."

"Then you guys never played poker with Kid Razor, have you?" Danielle Moonstar told the two. She was sitting on an armchair, and she was reading a book. "That guy is a real pain in the neck at the table."

"As compared to how he is normally?" Tabitha quipped.

"He constantly cheats." Danielle explained.

"And you are surprised?" Amara frowned. "Kid Razor is like that."

"Yeah! Whooo!" Sam Guthrie, Ray Crisp, Roberto DaCosta, and Bobby Drake whooped. The four of them were playing a racing game.

"I finally got ya, 'Berto! I finally got ya!" Ray smirked. The Brazilian mutant scowled.

"Yeah, right! You can't outspeed me, man!" Roberto made his car do a hard right turn. However, Ray made his car slam into Roberto's, causing it to crash into a light pole and explode. "AGH!"

"Ha, ha!" Ray cackled. "You got blowed up, man! Blowed up _reeeal goooood!_"

"Aw, come on..." Sam groaned.

"Geez, you two do this garbage every single time you play a game." Bobby groaned. "You two are banned from playing _Halo 2_ for this stuff."

"Not to mention that neither one of you are allowed to play _Halo 3_." Sam added.

"But _Halo 3_ isn't even out yet." Ray blinked.

"Two words: Pre-emptive strike." Sam told the two.

"Hey, what?" Danielle shifted in her seat. She was trying to move to a comfortable position, when she felt a lump next to her between the cushion and the arm of the chair. The Cheyenne mutant put her hand in the crevasse between the cushion and armrest, and she pulled out a small cube that had multicolored squares all over the faces. "What in the-?"

"Oh, wow!" Tabby blinked. "I didn't think that they still made those! Or even that there was one here?"

"What is that?" Amara blinked.

"A Rubik's Cube." Tabby explained. "It's a puzzle game. The object is to rearrange the little squares so that each face of the cube all has squares of the same color. One face has red squares, one blue, and so on."

"That thing is so 80s." Ray scoffed. **(1)**

"Hey, mah brother Jay has one of those." Sam grinned. "That thing drives him bonkers. He spends hours trying to solve it."

"How does one go about solving these...Rubik's Cubes?" Amara wondered.

"You gotta twist parts of the Cube, like this." Danielle explained, twisting one of the cube's faces. "Huh." She looked at it. "These things are incredibly difficult, though."

"Oh, yeah." Sam agreed. "Jay's thrown his cube against the wall several times."

"Those things are easy to solve." Ray snickered. "Just take it apart and put it back together."

"Yeah, that's how a brute like you would approach it." Roberto scoffed. "Just break it. You don't need to tear the Rubik's Cube apart to solve it."

"Alight, smart guy!" Ray snatched the cube and waved it in Roberto's face. "Let's see you solve it, then!"

"Come on, fellas..." Sam tried to calm the two down. "We're all a little tired of you two going at it all the time."

"Now hang on, Cannonball." Bobby snickered. "I wanna see this."

"Alright..." Roberto took the cube, arrogant smirk on the Brazilian's face. "Watch and learn, Raymond." Roberto started trying to work the cube.

"Is the cube solvable?" Amara watched Roberto working on the cube carefully.

"Yeah, but it's real difficult." Tabby explained.

"Oh no, I think I just remembered. I think Rubik's Cubes are banned here in the Institute. I think." Dani frowned. "I know they're banned in Misfit Manor."

"Only because Pietro kept getting them." Dani reminded. "He thinks that he can beat the world-speed record."

"I highly doubt that Guinness will accept a _speedster's_ attempt to break a speed record." Bobby rolled his eyes.

"After several minutes of trying to solve it, he went crazy and let's just say there was a sudden outbreak of tornadoes in the Pit." Dani remembered further with a shudder.

"Yeah. Poor Tripwire. Poor poor Tripwire." Sam shook his head sympathetically. "He can never get a break."

"Gah!" A frustrated Roberto screamed. "This blasted thing is rigged!"

"Not so smart, huh?" Ray smirked.

"You try it, smart man!" Roberto snapped, shoving the cube into Ray's chest.

"Fine, I'll just get a screwdriver." Ray shrugged.

"No!" Dani snatched the Rubik's Cube. "It's solvable. You don't need to break it to solve it. Let me try." Dani started twisting the cube. Minutes passed by as the Cheyenne mutant worked on the cube.

"Ah don't know, Dani. Those things are really tough." Sam scratched the back of his neck. "Maybe we should buy a book or somethin'."

"Ah, give her a shot, Sammy. Who knows? She may be able to pull it off." Bobby encouraged. Dani twisted the cube more.

"I got one face!" She held up the cube. One face was covered in blue squares.

"Alright, now you gotta get five more." Tabby encouraged.

"Good luck with that." Ray scoffed. "One side is usually all that most people can get. Two if they're lucky."

"I'll get this thing..." Dani grunted and grumbled as she twisted the cube. "Ah, man! I messed up my side!"

"See?" Ray snickered.

"Shut up, Zap-for-brains." Dani grumbled as she tried to twist the cube. Her face reddened as she tried to solve the cube some more.

"Uh oh..." Sam winced.

"We'd better stand back." Bobby suggested. The rest of the New Mutants immediately did so.

"GRRRRRRRR..." Dani growled at the multicolored toy. "RAAAAAH!" She started to throw it.

"Aw, no!" Sam yelped. "Dani!" The blond Kentuckian and Bobby held Dani's arm back.

"GAAAAH! I HATE THIS THING!" The Cheyenne mutant screamed. "LET ME GO! LET ME GO!"

"Dani, calm down!" Sam ordered.

"Yeah, Moonstar! Chill out!" Bobby agreed.

"Here, give it to me." Tabby took the Rubik's Cube. "Who wants to try it."

"Not me." Sam shook his head. "Ah've seen what those things do to mah brother."

"Trust me, you don't want me to try it." Bobby shook his head.

"Yeah, good point. I don't think you could solve it." Tabby frowned at the ice-maker. "And I don't think I could solve this."

"Let me try." Amara offered, taking the cube. "It is a children's toy. How difficult can it be?"

"You're going to regret that, 'Mara." Tabby shook her head.

"Evidently, she wasn't with us the last few minutes." Roberto groaned.

"Let 'er have a shot." Dani suggested. "Maybe she'll do better than I did."

"What in the-?!" Amara scowled as she twisted and turned the cube around. "I do not get it. I cannot get the colors to match up!" The Nova Roman grew more annoyed as she worked more with the cube.

"I...think we'd better get the cube away from her." Roberto winced. "Before she destroys it."

"Oh, ya think?" Ray rolled his eyes.

"Stupid cube!" Amara screamed. "You shall be solved! As a princess of Roma Nova, I command that you be solved!"

"Oh yes, Amara. You scared the cube into solving itself. Way to go." Bobby clapped his hands sarcastically.

"Okay, 'Mara. Let's just take the mean cube away from you..." Tabby started to reach towards her friend.

"I think she's starting to smoke..." Dani winced.

"Smells like someone is cooking bacon." Ray noted. Frustration boiling over, Amara screamed.

"This cube is pure evil! It shall be destroyed!" A fed-up Amara screamed, pitching the cube. The multi-colored toy hit the wall, and bounced into the floor.

"Oh, for the love of..." Bobby sighed, walking over and picking up the cube. "Let me look at it, guys."

"You?" Roberto scoffed. "If _we_ couldn't solve it, what makes you think _you_ could do it?" Bobby smirked.

"Just watch and learn." The ice-maker smirked. Clicking was heard as Bobby twisted and turned the Rubik's Cube's faces. After a minute or so, Bobby stopped. "Voila!" The ice-maker triumphantly held up the Cube like it was the Holy Grail. "Behold! A solved Rubik's Cube." He lightly pitched it to Amara, who examined the cube. True to the ice-maker's statement, every face had nine squares of a solid color on it. One had red squares, one blue, one yellow, one green, one white, and one orange.

"Amazing..." Amara gasped.

"Holy-!" Ray's jaw dropped.

"How did you-?!" Roberto mumbled. Bobby shrugged.

"Meh, those things are easy." He explained. "I held the speed record for Rubik's Cube-solving back home. One minute, thirty seconds. Of course the world record is much faster than that,but I'm working on it. "

"Me and my big mouth." Tabitha groaned, remembering the remark she made about Bobby earlier.

**(1) – Actually, the Rubik's Cube, as it is recognized today, was invented in 1974, by a Hungarian sculptor named Erno Rubik. However, it didn't gain popularity in the United States until the 1980s. The Rubik's Cube would go on to become one of the highest-selling toys ever. In fact, the title of this one-shot came from a variation of the Rubik's Cube called the Rubik's Revenge, which has 16 squares per face.**


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